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SANTIAGO AND PUCON....AND BACK AGAIN!!!!
Hello my lovelies, i hope you are all well! Would you believe i have been travelling for two months now, it´s gone crazy quick! Where is my life going!
So anyway, after our highly amusing trip across the Chilean border, we arrived in Santiago in the middle of the night and managed to sneak into some beds at a hostel for free (always a nice thing). Santiago is cool, but really just another city. As we had no real plans once we arrived we had to spend our first day devising a plan and then well...in usual fashion we mooched around the city! It´s a lot prettier than other cities we´ve been to, but it´s rather uninteresting i think, although the scenery from a height is beautiful as you see a gorgeous view of the Andes!
We did however meet an amazing group of Irish lads, and another dude (from london who we'd also met in Mendoza...Jamie) with whom we spent an amazing day with getting drunk in an irish pub watching the Ireland V Wales rugby match! As we were the only people in the pub and the owner had real irish people as they keep being refered to we had an awesome time screaming and shouting! We all got a bit nervous toward the end but the excitment when Ireland won that grand slam for the first time in 61 years was immense! We had the flags out and once Ireland had won the owner bought us all over a round of free beer, always a good thing! Admitedly it was green beer, but was actually very nice and i did have 3 pints, was very impressed with myself! :) After our expedition to the pub, we decided to go and climb San Cristobal Hill. This is basically a big hill that you can see the whole of the city from, and it is meant to be beautiful at sunset! On route to the hill, which was always going to take a while with 4 irish boys trashed and celebrating - FYI you cannot drink alcohol in the streets of Chile, we found this out the hard way haha!
Anyway, as i was saying, en route to the hill we saw a group of firemen in training...when you see an opportunity like this, anyone would do as me and kate did - which was to jump infront of the hose and get absolutely drenched! It was hilarious and the firefighters thought we were hilarious and loved us so let us have a go at training as well, so if you are ever in need of a fire being put out, me and kate are the people to call! we know what to do people! We were both soaked and i didn't dry until we got home about 3 hrs later! great! lol!!
We did have every intention of climbing to the top of the hill but at the risk of missing sunset we had to settle with only getting half way...the sun goes down so quickly! It was beautiful watching the sky go from bright blue to pink!! The sky here in Chile is constantly blue without a cloud in the sky! It's amazing!! Following our antics it was only logic that we had to continue celebrating so we decided to hit up a club that was free to get into! Know one can now say that me and the girls cant party without drink as we spent the entire night/ early hours of the morning dancing like children to some good old 80s music...we were voguing, rolling around the floor, making up pirate dances! oo we were also dressed in our pyjamas as we couldnt be bothered to change, we were slightly under dressed but created quite the stir when acting out animal behaviour, for example - act like a whale! I know this sounds crazy, but for those of you who have witnessed me, lorna and kate together will totally understand haaaa!!
I mentioned earlier that we met a dude from London called Jamie, well he became part of our fabulous travelling crew and joined us on our journey to southern Chile is a little town called Pucon.
Pucon is 10 hours or so south of Santiago and surrounded by lakes, mountains and volcanos! Although it is rather toursity we were lucky in that it wasn't high season so it was very tranquil and just mesmerising! As soon as we arrived in our little hostel that was so sweet and cosy we were all in love with Pucon. There is so much to do in terms of adventure, you can go bodyboarding, repelling, rafting, bike riding etc... we decided to get involved with the Canopy which is basically sliding along zip wires through the mountains reaching speeds of 70mph! It was an obsene amount of fun...although the outfit wasn't the sexiest of things haha i really felt like i was flying through the mountains! At first i had difficulty in breaking and on my first try i went smack bang into a tree, ooops! There was one line that you had to go down in pairs, me and kate went together with her infront, meaning that it was my job to break! It was definately the quickest wire and all i could hear the entire time were kates screams telling me to break. Because she was screaming so loudly, i couldn't hear the guides telling me to break and i got so paniced about kate wacking into a tree head on i breaked waaay to early! We had to wheel ourselves back in using our hands and the guide eventually got fed up with how slow we were being and bought us back in!
The views were spectacular, everywhere i looked i could see mountains and blue sky! We finished off the afternoon in the hot springs...which was great! we also had ourselves a little mud bath, although it really was know where near as good as the dead sea, infact i'm pretty sure it was just to make us more dirty than we already were haha!!
The main attraction to Pucon is the opportunity to climb Volcano Villarrica. Ever since i'd heard that you could do that in Chile i was desperate to do it! The volcano itself is still active, and is half covered in snow at this time of the year! We booked ourselves onto a tour that started at 7am in the morning, of course we overslept a little and ended up rushing like blue arse flys to get there on time, i swear i've never made sandwiches that quickly before ha! There are soo many companies to go with, and we were very lucky in that our tour group didn't like to take more than 6 people in a group, luckily it was just the four of us with two guides! I hadn't really thought about the actual climb, more at the exciting prospect of climbing an actve volcano. When we arrived at the bottom we all looked up and thought errr it's not that high this'll be a piece of cake! How wrong we were!
We caught a ski lift up the first bit (thank god) and then started our climb! We were given special walking boots and all the other gear we needed including hats, helmets, waterproofs, crampons, gloves (i had two right handed ones, always useful) and some other funny things! We dressed up really warm expecting it to be freezing, but errr uhhh it was boiling hot! The first bit of the climb was fine, just took a little getting used to! It wasn't until we got an hour into the 5 hour hike that we hit the snow and had to put on our crampons! For those of you who don't know, i am actually really scared of snow, i do not like it and for some reason i had forgotten this through the excitment until we got to the snow! I knew from that moment that it was going to be a very difficult day!! Climbing through the snow was scary but luckily the guide infront, Rodrigo was brilliant and held my hand whenever i got really scared! I was surprised with how well i coped in the snow if i'm honest, however i did have about 7 asthma attacks and of course i left my inhaler at the hostel (stupid me i know), thank god the guide had one on him to save my life! :)
Our guides did seem to be a little more extreme than all the others, they kept taking us ways that know one else was going telling us that it was the easy way! I somehow disagree with that when we were climbing up vertical slants of snow when everyone else found their way to the rocks and had a piece of rope to hold onto! His argument was that was a longer route...our was shorter but just a little bit more risky with ROCKS FALLING DOWN EVERY FEW MINUTES! great! we were just so excited to hear that news, don't think we've all ever moved so quickly in all our lives!
All the stress and scares were totally worth it once we reached the top! The view was UNBELIEVABLE to say the least! It didn't look real! As one of the nearby volcanos erupted last year the pressure was down and sadly we didn't get to see any lava but we could hear the volcano, was so loud! We managed to walk most of the way round the crater, you can't get all the way round due to the toxic fumes which are overpowering! We spent around and hour wondering around taking in the view and munching on a well earned sandwich! ha!
I hadn't thought about coming down in the snow, just as i hadn't thought about going up in the snow so in typical fashion our guides took us down the way that know one else went...first through rocks that i fell down a million times doing, slicing my finger as we went and then we got to the snow! o my....we were all a bit scared as to how we were going to get down, and as we didn't have the crampons on, walking in the snow was difficult and i kept sliping because i couldn't walk properly by this point ha!
So, the way the get down the snow is to sit on your bum, with your pick axe in hands with the point in the snow and slide down on your bum! we were wearing these nappy type things but not waterproof trousers so our bums and well, entire legs got soaking wet! The first slide down we sent Jamie first to check it out, then Lorna went down, then Kate and then me! What happened next i think will remain one of the funniest moments of my life EVER! As kate was going down i went down after, and i completely lost control, went off course wacking into the back of kate and taking her out with me! We quickly picked up far to much speed and with both of us screaming our heads off, and the two guides skiing down on their boots to rescue us shouting at us to somehow break i really did think that was the end of it! honest to god, i thought we were going to go flying off the cliff so i was screaming shema at the top of my lungs! The guides managed to rescue us, but as soon as they let go of us to stand up we started shooting down again! At the time is wasn't so funny, i was crying hysterically but now that we have survived that it is hilarious! i keep cracking out into laughter whenever i think about it! i only wish someone had filmed it, or at least got a photo! never mind!
Well, that was the beginning of a disasterous few hours for me, i couldn't handle the snow and i really was panicking the whole way down, i did eventually find a way of sliding down verrrrrry slowly, but the guides kept shouting at me! Me and my main man Rodrigo had a few arguments, but he was great at calming me down at times...he was my hero of chile lol!! On the last slide, it had huuuge walls so the likely hood of going off course was slim, but the guides warned us that it was the one where you pick up most speed so you need to make sure that you are using your pick axe properly! By this point, i had just had enough and i just wanted to be back at the hostel curled up in bed, i had slammed my feet so many times during my millions of falls and was in so much pain that i turned to the guides and asked if anyone had a cellphone! i kid you not, i was about to call home and ask someone to send a helicopter, i point blank refused to move! haha! people thought i was joking, when i actually wasn't! It didn't take me long to realise that i was being ridiculous and once down the slide i had half a volcano left to conquer until i was at the bottom! So, i slide down behind my guide, and i was actually starting to enjoy sliding down when all of a sudden on one bend i went flying over the walls of the human man bum slide....that was it, i really had had enough then! I can safely say that i will NEVER go skiing or that near to snow again lol!! Only i would go flying over the walls..grrr! again, it's funny now cos i survived!!
So, once the hard part of getting down the snow was done, it was just sand and rock left to get through! The guides had been brilliant, esp with me and Lorna as she couldn't use her right arm properly due to her fall, however once the hardest was over they ran down the volcano leaving us all trailing behind! Lorna managed to slip and hit her head, thankfully she was still wearing her helmet and then i lost my concentration as i was thinking 'wow sian, your doing really well right now' and fell and twisted my ankle! After i'd fallen once, i continued to fall, taking out my second ankle and bashing my feet as i went!
I cannot explain how amazing it was to reach the bottom of the volcano, albeit limping and in a lot of pain, but i made it! I DID IT! i can now say i have climbed up and down Volcano Villarrica! It was by fair one of the best and worst things i've ever done! I would recommend it to everyone heading into chile, it's an experience of a lifetime! just a shame that we didn't see any lava! Guess i'll have to climb another one another time, but maybe without snow next time haha!!
Once we made it back to our lovely little hostel all we wanted to do was shower and sleep which is basically what we did, although we did run out to eat and practically fell asleep at the table ooops!
The beds in the hostel were so amazingly comfi, and i managed to snap up a double bed as i have done myself some serious damage to my left big toe, its swollen and black! great! I'm in agony which isn't fun but i'l survive! Got nurse Corbett-Winder to strap it up for me hehe!
We all definately had the aches, pains, bruises and cuts to show for our climb the next day, which we took as a clear sign to take a relaxing day around town before catching an overnight bus back to Santiago!
Santiago seems to a place where travellers stop and do nothing, and just wait for flights! We had to come back as this is where Lorna flys out from!
Arriving back in Santiago was a bit of a drama as we reserved places in a hostel but they didn't get the reservation so we had to find somewhere else - which didnt offer brekkie which is always sad ha! On Lorna's last day we wondered around the city and then in the evening Lorna treated us to a yummmmmi meal in a lovely restaurant! We had wine and everything wooop wooop!! We all dressed up nice and i ate salmon, one of the first times i've actually eaten fish out here so i really enjoyed it!
The day lorna left, we had our final game of UNO as the rio trio (a name Jamie gave to us down in Pucon) and dropped her at the airport! There were lots of tears...none of us had thought about not seeing each other for 8 months or maybe more and well it's just so sad! 2 months has gone so fast and we've had such fun...Lorna, our loooona we miss you already!!! But people, me and kate will be fine, we are fabulously intelligent and we make things work! We had to move hostels AGAIN but as we arrived later in the evening they had given one of our beds away, tragic i know! but we sorted it out...me and kate had to share a bed haha! luckily the beds were big singles and it was fine, and on the plus side we only had to pay for one bed and the brekki is pancakes (not to my taste though sadly...they were a bit crunchy).
From here, we are going to work our way up north to the beaches and then we are thinking about possibly and most probably will wack in Bolivia to our adventures! WHY NOT...add in a few more stamps to the passport! :)
Will write again soon, hope your all enjoying the pictures i have put up ...i have put up a few albums, so enjoy! Looona, we miss you lots!!!
So we have 3 and a bit wks left in south america then it's over to NZ, let the adventures continue! Missing you all, lots of love
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